Choosing Lots - CASE STUDY

You are the members of the board of the regional transit authority. Your jurisdiction covers five counties, four of which are mostly suburban, and one county that is urban. The authority badly needs a new bus terminal with bus garage, since the population has grown in both the city and the suburbs. There are new jobs in the city as well as in the suburbs, and the authority wants to provide transportation, especially so people from poorer neighborhoods can get to the new jobs in the suburbs by public transit.

The authority has the power, as a government agency, to take property by "eminent domain." This means that the owner is required to sell the property to the government, but the owner is paid fair market value.

Lot A, the first lot could be purchased for $1000 an acre. Lot B, the second lot, would probably go for $5000 an acre. Lot C, the last lot, would go for $10,000 an acre.

The people near Lot A (inner city) claim that they are being discriminated against because they are poor, and they are tired of the city dumping bus garages, sewage plants and trash disposal plants in their neighborhood. The people living near Lot A include many recent immigrants.

The people near Lot B (edge of city) say that they have worked hard over the past decades to revitalize their neighborhood and turn it into a family-oriented, middle class area. Crime is down, home ownership and property values are up, and they want only clean businesses in the area. There are also many small businesses that have been here for decades that could not successfully re-locate elsewhere.

The people near Lot C (suburbs) said that they paid good money to invest in homes in a wealthy area with little pollution, traffic and noise. There are some office parks nearby in which the companies need more clerical and custodial workers. The people near Lot C have hired an expensive law firm and said they'll take this to court for years. They stalled a freeway bypass for fifteen years this way.

There are no other possible lots. Which one should the authority choose to take by eminent domain and why?

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